An LGBT activist teacher in Colorado and her trans-identifying male husband are housing a 17-year-old girl who identifies as a boy. Police say they are unable to intervene to bring the teen home to her mother.
JoAnn Smotherman, a former math teacher at Durango High School, took the teen, one of her students, into her Durango home in December when the girl left home after a fight with her mother. JoAnn is married to Vivian Smotherman, a trans-identifying man who ran for Colorado State Senate as a Democrat last year.
The teen’s mother, Cynthia Stein, has gone to the Smothermans’ home and attempted, unsuccessfully, to take back her daughter. She called in the police, but the officers who responded to the scene said they would not force the teen to go home, according to the police report and body cam footage of the incident obtained by The Daily Wire.
The situation is the culmination of months of outside influences on the vulnerable teen, her mother told The Daily Wire.
The 17-year-old girl has identified as a boy since the fall and now uses a unisex name. She has been diagnosed with autism, ADHD, an eating disorder, depression, and anxiety, according to medical records provided by her mother. At school, the teen was seeing a counselor, without her mother’s knowledge, who advised the girl to terminate parental notification and encouraged her to participate in LGBT support groups, her mother said.
The turn to radical gender ideology came amid difficult times at home. Stein underwent treatment for an aggressive cancer in 2023, and believes that crisis deeply affected her daughter, who became “very withdrawn” from the family.
“Smotherman stepped in and took advantage of my kid,” Stein told The Daily Wire. “She’s just inserted herself into my family, and I still can’t get her out.”
“I just can’t stress to you enough how floored I am that this woman has gotten away with what she has, and that there is nothing that I can do to make it right or hold her accountable,” Stein said.
On November 2, the teen ran away from home after her mother told her they were moving to Denver to be near family, and to put some distance between the teen and local influences. Law enforcement and Child Protective Services got involved, and the child ultimately went home to her mother.
However, the girl left home again on December 21 after a fight with her mother. This time, she went straight to the Smothermans’ house, her mother later discovered, although she initially did not know where her daughter was and filed a runaway report with the police.
On January 5, Stein went with two friends to the Smothermans’ house and tried to retrieve her daughter. Stein called the police, and two deputies with the La Plata County Sheriff’s Office responded and conducted a welfare check on her daughter.
“Basically, as long as I know that everybody’s okay, that’s really the extent of law enforcement involvement, you know what I mean? I don’t know. I don’t know what else to say,” one deputy told both Smothermans on their porch when he arrived.
“We get it. He’s just incredibly terrified right now because of everything that they’ve been through,” Vivian responded, using male pronouns for the girl.
The officer went inside and asked the teen how she was, and she responded, “I’m good, how are you?”
“Good, that’s all I need to basically hear,” the officer said, adding later, “You don’t appear to be in distress. I don’t want to put words in your mouth.”
“No, not until my mom showed up,” the teen responded. “I was totally fine. I was having fun.”
“I mean yes, by legal standard you’re technically a minor as a 17-year-old,” the officer said, telling her that “as long as you’re not being held against your will or kidnapped or anything awful like that, things get a little more complicated when we hit 17-years-old and have the ability to drive and go places and make decisions about who we hang out with.”
“I appreciate your willingness to, I don’t know, I guess help me check boxes,” the officer said as he exited the house.
Meanwhile, the other officer was speaking with Vivian outside about how the teen ended up at the Smothermans. The teen claimed her mother kicked her out, but her mother said that while they did have a fight, she never meant to kick her daughter out.
“He got kicked out, and now they want him back?” the officer asked.
“He has not been told by his parents to come back,” JoAnn Smotherman said.
“Well it seems like they want him back now, no?” the officer said.
The Smothermans also informed the officers that the teen was a couple of months away from turning 18.
“Certainly not what I would consider a ‘child,’” the first officer said, using air quotes.
Vivan Smotherman, the transgender-identifying Democrat activist, told the cops he “absolutely” does not want the teen’s mother coming onto his property.
As the officers walked to their cars, the first officer told his partner, “probably going to have to speak with them,” referring to the teen’s mom and her friends.
“Yeah they’re gonna have a meltdown,” the second officer said.
“Exactly,” the first officer responded, laughing.
Back at the bottom of the driveway, Stein told the deputies, “She is a minor. I don’t care if she’s a day away from 18. A minor is a minor, and she does not have my permission to be here.”
The first officer told her that “minor and child are different” and that the situation was “on a civil level” and “does not rise to the level of law enforcement involvement.”
“So I’m sorry, you’re telling me that you’re not going to —” Stein began.
“Physically rip her out of that home? Yeah,” the officer responded.
In the police report, the first officer wrote, “Being that [the teen] is roughly two months from turning 18, has filed for emancipation, has had recent involvement with CPS including investigations into the difficulties at Cynthia’s home, did not wish to return home, has stayed with Jo Ann when experiencing problems at home in the past and appeared to be of sound mind, in good health and spirits in what appeared to be a safe place, engaged in constructive activities and was not in distress, I did not force [the teen] to leave.”
Before the police incident, Stein was also served legal documents to emancipate her daughter from her custody, a move she believes JoAnn Smotherman was behind.
On February 23, Smotherman posted on Facebook asking for money to continue paying a lawyer for a “young transman.”
“Hello Friends. I need your assistance again. Some months ago we raised the needed funds to provide a lawyer to a young transman,” Smotherman wrote. “The lawyer has successfully protected this young man from his abusers. However, our retainer ran out a couple weeks ago. Dispite [sic] the lack of funds, the lawyer continued working on the case, which is now coming to a successful close. We need to raise another $1000 to pay for services that have already been provided. Anything raised beyond what is owed to the lawyer will go to updating the young man’s gender marker and name so that he can be further protected from the coming challenges. If you are able to help, please message me for how to contribute.”
The emancipation request was ultimately denied. A “small victory,” Stein said.
JoAnn Smotherman did not respond to a request for comment. The lawyer who filed the emancipation petition likewise did not respond.
Asked why law enforcement was unable to return the teen to her mother, Sergeant Chris Burke with the La Plata County Sheriff’s Office pointed to law enforcement’s policy on juvenile non-offenders, which states that juveniles may be taken into custody for their own safety if they are abused, neglected, under the influence of substances, or an illegal alien.
JoAnn’s Facebook page is chock full of posts promoting LGBT activism. Her profile picture shows her at “Drag Bingo in Denver.” Other posts ask for volunteers for Pride and Transgender Day of Remembrance events. A cartoon she posted accuses parents of pushing their gay kids away and then accusing the LGBT crowd of “grooming” them. She also posted to “protect the pride flag” in public schools. Recently the Durango school district had a months long saga over the Black Lives Matter and “progress pride” flags, and the school board ultimately decided both are allowed in schools.
Vivian Smotherman has been a public figure since last year when he ran for Colorado State Senate. He was promoted by local Democrats but ultimately lost to his Republican opponent.
The situation has caused Stein and her family a world of “chaos and hurt,” she said. Her daughter has not contacted her since she left the house, although the teen did come by to get some of her stuff in January.
The teen’s mother said she had been giving her daughter Hallmark cards telling her she loves her through friends of hers who are employees at the local grocery store, where the teen worked. However, Stein said she recently heard her daughter quit that job.
The teen’s lawyer has demanded Stein stop contacting her daughter and turn over the account numbers for the college fund and inheritance set up by Stein’s parents, the teen’s grandparents, she said.
“Because I love my child, I have honored that request,” Stein said.
The teen turns 18 on Tuesday, and is still living with the Smothermans.
“I’m sure I don’t have to tell you that I’m heartbroken not to be able to share this milestone with her,” her mother said. “She and I actually share the same birthday so it’s a double whammy for me. I’m devastated at the idea that she thinks I hate her and never want her in my life again.”
